Tomida ware is pottery made in Okawa Town, Sanuki City, Kagawa Prefecture. The Tomida area in Okawa Town has been known as a pottery village since the Edo period.
In the Edo period, Rihei ware, Gennai ware, Tomida ware, Yashima ware, and Sangama kiln were earning reputation as Sanuki okuni ware, but a lot of their potter’s clay was from Tomida, Okawa Town.
In 1718, The fourth-generation Rihei, of Rihei ware, established a kiln in Tomida, and created beautiful colored pottery, which has become a signature of Tomida. In the Tenmei and Kansei periods, Hiraga Gennai’s best apprentice, Akamatsu Shozan, succeeded the kiln. He mainly made Nanking porcelain Tomida ware.
From the Kasei period until the Tenpo period, Tominaga Saburo produced everyday items on a large scale while guiding many pottery craftsmen, but the kiln shut down in the Meiji period. The works left from this time were designated by the prefecture as historic remains under the name of “Tomida ware Yoshikane kiln ruins.”
In 1976, a younger brother of Rihei ware’s third-generation head, Kita Riko, established a pottery workshop in Tomida, which was associated with the founder. Tomida ware Yoshikane kiln was restored and is still active until now.
